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Hello everyone!

This blog is my attempt at second shot - precision heritage photography - and my search for little nuggets of history and heritage locally and overseas. When free, I can be found wandering along the streets and elsewhere, trying to uncover their geographical past.

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Aug 16, 2012

When all have been blogged (example) and recorded (example) following the demise of the Grand Dame, a chapter closes in the history of Singapore. But is it true that nothing more could be said of our National Stadium? Not really. In this short pictorial post, I'm going to show how even when our heritage are destroyed, they do not always disappear. They get ... recycled!
Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation Centre (SRC) was officially opened in Nov 2011. It was only a few months later that I realized some strange wooden structures erected at the bicycle park. The bikes are partly hidden by these plank-like structures from the main road, which might have been the intention. Curious by this wooden installation outside the building, I walked closer for a better look. A transparent plaque describes the origin of the planks. Guess what, these are relics from our National Stadium!

The "wooden installation" that piqued my curiosity and the view from top. Are they designed to hide the unsightly bikes behind?

A touch of green and history. The transparent plaque describes the origin of the "wooden installation".

A closer look at the planks. Did they come from our National Stadium? Indeed, these came from the spectator seats of the demolished National Stadium!

The next time you are at the SRC, do keep a lookout for these National Stadium relics. Actually other than the wooden installation, the rest do not look like relics because they have been reconditioned. You can find the timber as sun-shading screens above the main entrance and even at the pool slide lookout tower above.

You'd be amazed where they find use for those reconditioned timber. This is the ceiling of the indoor sports hall looking like logs. Are these from the National Stadium as well? The plaque mentions some are used for "interior decorative wall panelling", I did not manage to find them other than one at the most unlikely of places.

I believe not many folks realize the physical structures in our National Stadium still live on in the form of reconditioned timber in the newer SRCs. Beside Pasir Ris, other SRCs including those yet to be built may have these timber as part of the facade or decoration. The spectator seats in the stadium if salvaged and reconditioned should provide enough "building material" for a few more SRCs.

The Pasir Ris SRC at night. Can you spot the planks that form the "wooden installation" on the right?

1 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi Char Lee,

The National Stadium was a dump.

I've been going there for 20 years since during the Malaysia Cup days.I appreciate its heritage and all the good (and many bad) times I had there.

But frankly, in its latter years it was a disgrace. The facilities were falling apart (esp from the late 90s onwards; those benches would leave your backsides sore, there were no hospitality/corporate facilities, the toilets were 5th world standard, and the catering was lamentable, where they basically had two hole-in-the wall type stands that served you cold tasteless sarnies, hard curry puffs, flat colas...sometimes they might have beer, most times no beer. The queues were long and the overall fan experience was zero.

I'm glad they tore it down for something that's going to be international standard with awesome facilities.

So in other words, no, I couldn't care less where those lousy benches have ended up.

But that's no slur on your efforts to document the past...I still am a big fan of your site.